Rick Commons is the President of Harvard-Westlake, an independent college preparatory day school for grades 7th-12th in Los Angeles, California. He has worked in education since graduating from college, holding numerous positions, such as an English teacher, soccer coach, dean and more. In his current role, Commons oversees both the school and business sides of Harvard-Westlake, working closely with the CFO and Head of School, along with the rest of the leadership team.

Meera Ratnesar is in her ninth year as the Head of Curtis School, a DK-6th independent elementary school on the Westside of Los Angeles. She has been in education her entire life, although her career aspirations were never in pedagogy. 

Meg Resnikoff is the co-founder of the YouTube channel “What’s Up Moms” where she has made short form content for mothers for the past 9 years. Her journey to where she is now was a winding one, having graduated during both the 2002 economic crisis and the 2008 recession.

Melissa Kaufman is an entrepreneur, mentor, and educator to business leaders & individuals at the high school level, collegiate level and beyond. She notes, “I help people live their best life using an entrepreneurial mindset.” Her goal is to help people think and act in an entrepreneurial way whether in a traditional context like starting a business, or a nontraditional one like finding a job or completing a passion project. Melissa believes that the entrepreneurial mindset has broad and flexible applications that anyone can resonate with.

Audrey Wisch and Alec Katz are the co-founders of Curious Cardinals, an edtech startup founded in 2020. Through Curious Cardinals, they aim to empower students to pursue their passions and center curiosity by matching the most passionate college mentors with K-12 students. Wisch and Katz were also included in the 2022 edition of the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and featured on CNN.

Phil Schuman currently works at FTI consulting leading the Media and Entertainment group, which covers 14 sub-sectors including entertainment financing, ed tech, metaverse, and creation of media. Schuman has had four distinct careers to date, which he states is not uncommon for someone his age.

Brown is the head of film at Zealot, a creative marketing agency. He has worked on trailers for A Quiet Place 2, Downtown Abbey, Scream, and Sonic the Hedgehog (for the Superbowl), to name a few. His work is centered around crafting the visual and audio stories of a film’s advertising campaign.

Currently, Wisch is a documentary film producer. She is newer to the industry as she spent the first 3 decades of her career working in marketing and branding. The first film she produced, The Price of Everything, was sold to HBO and nominated for an Emmy. Wisch’s other works include Love Cecil and The Art of Making It.

Lawrence is a TV writer who has written for hit shows like Gilmore Girls, Ugly Betty and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. At the time of our interview, she was focusing her time and energy on a new show for Amazon pitched during the pandemic. Having submitted the pilot episode script, Lawrence was working on the show bible which outlines the show’s first season and explains the characters and the future of the plot. When we spoke, Lawrence said, “I’m waiting for notes and to find out if they’re going to make the show.”

Chiarelli currently works as a screenwriter in Hollywood, building the foundations for feature films and TV shows one script at a time. He has written scripts for movies like The Proposal and Crazy Rich Asians.